1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pasteurization system for dairy farming products, particulary for milk, which utilizes two or more basins wherein the product is heated until a pasteurization temperature is reached and then cooled until it reaches preservation temperature. This system realizes the cycle in sequence in several basins so that heat coming from a basin during cooling is completely or partially utilized to heat one or more other basins.
2. Description of the Prior Art
This type of pasteurization system has been already proposed in order to reduce, especially in high capacity systems, the equipment cost and moreover, to reduce the installed horsepower, the energy consumption and the cooling water when it is utilized.
This known prior art system comprises, for every pasteurization basin, two separated coils, respectively a heating and a cooling coil, which can be selectively connected to the cold part or heat part of a refrigerating circuit adapted for operating at the same time as heat pump and having a heat exchanger between the ends of heat and cold parts. Although this solution has considerable advantages compared with other traditional equipment, as above mentioned, it involves some structural complexity due to the presence of two distinct circuits connected with each basin.
Moreover, this solution presents a lower efficency in the system due to thermal inertia, and especially because each circuit has a limited thermal exchange surface with the basin.